Fox, too, was Spiritual-but-not-Religious

There is this growing trend in the U.S. in the number of people who identify as “spiritual but not religious.” The Pew Research Center’s 2024 Religious Landscape Study reported that 83% of adults in the U.S. believe in God or a universal spirit, and 79% say there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, but a smaller share (64%) say religion is “somewhat” or “very” important in their lives, and just 33% go to church at least monthly. So it seems that while there is a large majority of people who believe in some aspect of God and see something of value in the concept of spirituality, few seem to be finding it in religious organizations or in attending churches.

Also this study showed that 47% of adults identified as both spiritual and religious. This means that they participate in a religious organization and engage in some type spiritual practices with the concept of “spiritual” meaning to have a connection to something “bigger” or “other” than oneself. 10% say they are religious but not spiritual, 21% say they are neither spiritual nor religious, and 22%  say they are spiritual but not religious. These last two, “neither spiritual nor religious” and “spiritual but not religious” are the areas that are growing. This correlates to the decline of the number of adults who have an affiliation with a specific religious group, which would be those in the “spiritual and religious” and “religious but not spiritual” groups.

It would seem that for some people in having a dissatisfaction with religion and/or spirituality, they are either dropping religion/spirituality as being of a concern/value/usefulness/purpose in their lives (neither spiritual nor religious), or they are going out on their own and seeking something that response to their spiritual desires outside of a continuous or extended participation within a specific religious group (spiritual but not religious).

This aspect of “going out on one’s own” is very much a part of the growing trend of viewing spirituality/religion as a personal thing. This view holds that spirituality is something that one experiences as an individual and is for them as an individual. While they may go to a spiritually-based group to have these experiences, these groups can be participated in as a collection of individuals having their own personal/individual spiritual experiences. These experiences can be spoken of as related to things like connecting with one’s true or inner self, finding inner peace/enlightenment, the individual becoming one with nature or ultimate being, etc.

When one does these things while not affiliating with one specific tradition, one can develop a smorgasbord spirituality of picking and choosing elements from various traditions that make one feel good and may only engage in them on those occasions when one wants to or needs to feel good, and does not engage in the fullness of any tradition on a deeper more continuous level. This smorgasbord approach which picks and mixes individual things from a variety of traditions, generally misses the importance of how the various individual things in one tradition interact and work together in the bringing about the function or goal of that spiritual tradition.

Unfortunately there are Christian churches whose practices, whether intentionally or unintentionally, seem to feed this notion of individualistic smorgasbord spirituality in relation to presenting a feel-good and entertaining worship service and a surface-level pick-and-choose-once-or-twice-a-month-on-Sundays engagement in Christian spiritual life. Recently a friend recounted an experience of overhearing someone in the grocery store inviting another person to their church by talking about the friendly people, good music (live worship band), and the food and coffee at the food court (it was a megachurch). This focus on the more physical/worldly aspects of the worship service and of the spiritual community was void of speaking about the spiritually beneficial/nurturing aspects that a worship service and participation in a spiritual community should provide. This encounter made my friend realize the very unfortunate state that the (religious) world is in—liking and promoting the worldly performance aspects of religion rather than fully rejoicing in and sharefully encouraging the spiritual manifestation of Christ in our lives.

Finding out that what churches are offering is not responding to what people are seeking, as well as churches focusing on and offering things that speak to the entertaining/physical/worldly aspects of life, is not anything new.

Though the terms would have had different meanings in his time, George Fox during his period of being spiritually unsettled and not finding in the church and its rituals what he was seeking or what would settle him, probably would have been considered “spiritual but not religious.” When he sought out consultation with religious leaders, their responses to him were along the lines of the physical/worldly: get married, smoke tobacco, try bloodletting with leeches.

Many new/revitalized religious/spiritual movements begin with a founder’s individual spiritual awakening. For Fox, the pivotal event was hearing, spiritually, a voice say, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition” which resulted in his heart leaping for joy, a confirmation of its Truthfulness.

Yet as many of these new movements begin with a spiritual awakening, such spiritual experiences can move, in time, to a structure of religious codification of empty ritual. It seems to be much easier to tell people and for people to respond to being told what to do/is expected of them, then to support and encourage them in seeking out and engaging in a spiritual awakening and an on-going experience for themselves. Even some groups with a goal of spiritual awakening provide a step-by-step guide/ritual for “achieving” spiritual awakening, as opposed to providing encouragement and support related to one opening up oneself, one’s heart, and receiving it.

It is good for people to be spiritually seeking and even to be unsettled by what worldly religious practices have to offer. When one seeks from an open heart, God does respond. When one seeks from a human contrived plan/ritual, it can be much harder for God to work through and around that all that clutter. For those who are “spiritual but not religious,” this can be viewed as a difference between an engaging spiritual experience and an empty religious practice.

Quaker faith, as with all faiths, can become more of a religious practice thing than a spiritual experience. When we invoke understandings, stances, and positions as the only correct way, we can easily segue into religious dogma and to what those who identify as “spiritual but not religious” want to avoid. We can talk of spiritual notions that resonate with us individually, “experimentally” as Fox wrote, and share those experiences with others as a way to encourage and nurture them, but we need to be careful not to let this slip into the wild grapes of religious dogma.

One thing that differentiated George Fox’s spiritual awakening, and its unfolding into the Quaker movement, from other individual seekers and groups of individual seekers at that time was the aspect of spiritual seeking and engagement being a community thing and not just an individual thing. It was not a group of people in the same place at the same time pursuing their own personal/individual spiritual seeking and engagement, but, while individuals, they/we are seeking and engaging as a community, a body of believers, and God ministers to us both as individuals and as a body. I know a Quaker pastor who initiates corporate prayer with “Let us bow our head” (singular).

A challenging thing for us when we encounter a “spiritual but not religious” seeker in the grocery store or visiting our meetings for worship is in their understanding of the spiritually flourishing aspect of being part of a spiritual community, the worshiping body. This can be especially true since for them the concept of community gets more tied to the shared dogma and ritual espoused by a religious group than spiritual community being a spiritual body that as a body is turning toward and opening up to God. Fox and many other current “spiritual but not religious” seekers have found the dogma and ritual not to be helpful and have rejected it. But, in the context of spiritual individualism, it might take some effort to help current seekers more fully realize the how and why of Quaker spiritual community.

Wil Brant (Crossroads Meeting, OYM) 05/2025